Tires My tire fell off

[CtRick]

So i'm mowing the other day with my TC24D and my left front tire just popped off /forums/images/graemlins/ooo.gif. I thought I had fallen in a sink hole or snapped my axle, but no, it was just the tire falling off. I have 27 hours on the tractor and have checked my bolts every few hours because of things i have read here. My dealer is sending me a tap and some new bolts. What gets me is that I've never had a loose bolt, and I checked the remaining three tires after the incident, and none of them were loose. This must have happened out of nowhere. Oh well, thankfully I was playing with my toothbar earlier that day so my loader was on, I had been mowing with it off.
Rick

 

[jinman]

Did the bolts snap off or did they back out of their threaded holes? Why do you need a tap? Is the hub damaged? I know... lots of questions. I was just wondering if the bolts may have been overtorqued at some point and the heads snapped off. That happened to my girlfriend's son right after he had new tires put on his Blazer. All the lug bolts on his car had to be replaced. ...just a thought. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[CtRick]

Out of the 5 bolt holes, only one bolt screwed right back in. The other 4 bolt holes are stripped out, but the bolts are fine. I think one bolt loosened out (the hole that is not stripped) and the other 4 kind of ripped out. Incidentally, the 4 bolts I found were all within a couple of feet from the incident, I still haven't found the 5th bolt. I can't tell if there is damage to the hub other than the stripped out holes, it looks alright to my ignorant eyes /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif.

 

[Mrwurm]

Wow, this does not sound good. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Maybe, the heat treatment was forgotten on your hub. The metal was too soft to hold the lug bolts.

 

[Alan0043]

Do you want to trust a retapped hole ? There will not be to much metal to tap. The holding power of the threads will be less. If the bolt holes did strip , there is metal pulled out of the holes. The same thing could happen again. I don't want to sound like bad news. I feel safety is more important. Check to see want your warranty will cover. Doesn't the warranty cover everything for two years.

Al

 

[spencer200]

You should have your dealer replace the hub. We have replaced a couple for the same reason. They seem to come off unexpectedly. There does not seem to be an answer for this yet as to why it is happening. I do know that there was a backorder situtation with the wheel bolts back a while ago so this tells me something was going on with this.

 

[CtRick]

I knew the easy fix sounded too good to be completely true. My dealer seems to have experience in this matter; he knew exactly what to send me off the top of his head and had it in the mail the same day. I'll have to call him back and inquire about replacing the hub. I asked him about doing that the other day but he seemed to think it was unnecessary. My poor tractor /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif, she's been babied since day one but she still got broken /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif.

 

[DavidJ]

I agree with others here. If the holes are stripped and not the bolts then the only way a tap is goiing to do you any good is if its a size bigger than original and I'd suspect that you'd also have to do some redrilling. I would strongly inquire for a new hub in this case.

Sorry to hear about your problem /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif but hopes all turns out well for you. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[CtRick]

I think it is a size bigger. He is also sending me some Loctite, which I hope isn't what he's planning to keep everything together with! Is replacing the hub an easy thing to do? My dealer is 300 miles away, unless I go to a different local dealer, so he probably won't want to come out and fix it.

 

[jinman]

Since your dealer is so far away, do you have a local machine shop that might look at your hub? You probably won't make it any worse by tapping the holes, but once you get it back on all four wheels you might want to have someone look at it to give you a second opinion. I'd keep the dialog up with your dealer too. The best way is to be direct and tell him you think you need a new hub and see if he agrees. Good luck!